SUPPLY CHAIN ARTICLES

  • Moderna & The Global mRNA Supply Chain: Regulatory Lessons Learned

    One of the most important reminders I took away from Moderna’s experiences ushering its mRNA vaccine onto the global market is that a commercial manufacturing process must also be accompanied by a commercially ready supply chain. Though sufficient physical volumes of each raw material and a redundant supplier network are necessities, physical scale is not the only “CQA” for which we must account when commercializing our supply chain. 

  • "Mirror, Mirror…": Reflections On Reducing mRNA Production COGS

    Here, I outline three overarching words of wisdom I gleaned from Life Edit Therapeutics’ April Sena; Tune Therapeutics’ Tyler Goodwin; and University of Sheffield’s Adi on how the mRNA/RNA industry can better control production costs — particularly as it relates to raw material sourcing and usage.  

  • 4 Risk Mitigation Strategies For mRNA Production

    Planning and procuring custom materials needed to manufacture mRNA remains a top concern. This article shares risk mitigation strategies for multi-sourcing, S&OP process, packaging size, and material expiry.

  • “Holy T7 Polymerase, Batman!”: R&D Considerations For More Awe-Inspiring xRNA

    It goes without saying we have some pretty ambitious therapeutic goals for linear mRNA and next-gen saRNA and circRNA. However, as my conversation with Koeris explored, we still have a lot of scientific and technical work/innovation ahead of us to make our RNA products “stronger” (in more ways than one).

  • What Violin Making Can Teach Us About mRNA Therapeutic Quality

    Managing the mRNA supply chain and working in mRNA process development may not look anything like the work a luthier does to hew an instrument from an ancient spruce tree. But violin craftmanship actually serves as a fantastic metaphor for the challenging work the mRNA therapeutics space is tackling in sourcing and qualifying raw materials and optimizing the critical IVT reaction.

  • A "Hot Take" on Personalized mRNA Medicines

    mRNA’s small-scale and cell-free production are often-touted benefits in the personalized medicines sphere. But as I reviewed my notes from the BioPhorum ATMP member event, I found myself coming face to face with a difficult truth.

SUPPLY CHAIN VIDEOS

In this Advancing RNA Live clip, Khaled Yamout and Sanofi’s Francoise Ribes share the quality considerations that are top of mind when evaluating a novel raw material, as well as how the broader industry (i.e., standard setting organizations, suppliers, and biotechs) can arrive at a clearer understanding of a material’s quality.

Advancing RNA Live panelists delve into advancements in IVT technology, homing in on innovations like bead-based purification, improved enzymes, and modular manufacturing systems.

Life Edit Therapeutics’ April Sena provides an update on NIST’s gene editing consortium, teasing forthcoming deliverables from a working group focused on gRNA quality. 

ALMAC expert Jill Caswell identifies the most overlooked challenges of working with ligase for the chemoenzymatic reaction, as well as the impact this is having today on enzyme engineering and purification. 

ARTICLES, APP NOTES, CASE STUDIES, & WHITE PAPERS